short term effects of announcing revised lower risk national drinking guidelines on related awareness and knowledge a trend analysis of monthly survey data in england
Open Access Research Short-term effects of announcing revised lower risk national drinking guidelines on related awareness and knowledge: a trend analysis of monthly survey data in England John Holmes,1,2 Jamie Brown,2,3,4 Petra Meier,1,2 Emma Beard,2,3,4 Susan Michie,2,3 Penny Buykx1,2 To cite: Holmes J, Brown J, Meier P, et al Short-term effects of announcing revised lower risk national drinking guidelines on related awareness and knowledge: a trend analysis of monthly survey data in England BMJ Open 2016;6:e013804 doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2016013804 ▸ Prepublication history and additional material is available To view please visit the journal (http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1136/bmjopen-2016013804) Received August 2016 Revised October 2016 Accepted 10 October 2016 For numbered affiliations see end of article Correspondence to Dr John Holmes; john.holmes@sheffield.ac.uk ABSTRACT Objectives: To evaluate short-term effects of publishing revised lower risk national drinking guidelines on related awareness and knowledge To examine where drinkers heard about guidelines over the same period Design: Trend analysis of the Alcohol Toolkit Study, a monthly repeat cross-sectional national survey Setting: England, November 2015 to May 2016 Participants: A total of 11 845 adults (18+) living in private households in England Intervention: Publication of revised national drinking guidelines in January 2016 which reduced the male guideline by approximately one-third to 14 units per week Measurements: Whether drinkers (1) had heard of drinking guidelines (awareness), (2) stated the guideline was above, exactly or below 14 units (knowledge) and (3) reported seeing the stated guideline number of units in the last month in each of 11 locations (exposure) Sociodemographics: sex, age (18–34, 35–64, 65+), social grade (AB, C1C2, DE) Alcohol consumption derived from graduated frequency questions: low risk (